Choose a country

Helping HZI become the leader in energy from waste solutions

Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI) is a global leader in the energy from waste (EfW) industry, acting as an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor to deliver complete turnkey plants and system solutions for EfW recovery. Royal HaskoningDHV has worked with HZI since 2007 providing integrated project management, quantity surveying and design services on around 90% of their UK projects – a total of 19 schemes across 18 counties, working alongside many different contractors.

Working as part of an integrated team, there are two main parts to Royal HaskoningDHV’s project management work with HZI – firstly, helping with civil works tendering, and secondly providing quantity surveying services using professionals who are highly experienced and familiar with contract and procurement routes.

HZI subcontracts the civil works on each EfW project, and Royal HaskoningDHV assists in this process by offering advice and practical support. This can include helping to prepare the tender and contract documentation, managing the tender process and negotiating with contractors; right through to the appointment of the successful contractor – a process which can often take years to come to fruition.

The first and biggest project that Royal HaskoningDHV worked on with HZI was the Riverside Resource Recovery facility in London, capable of managing around 585,000 tonnes of residual waste each year.

Commenting on the team’s involvement, Royal HaskoningDHV’s Principal Project Manager Trevor Amis said: “Royal HaskoningDHV was commissioned to assist with the preparation of the civil works tender and with the engagement of the civil works contractor on the Riverside project. We have an intimate knowledge of HZI and how the company works, having been integrated into their team at such an early stage, and good relationships with staff are immensely important in successfully delivering projects.”

As well as providing assistance with the civil works tendering process, Royal HaskoningDHV also provides HZI with bespoke cost consultancy services including the production of bills of quantities, estimates and benchmarking.

Royal HaskoningDHV’s scope has also been extended on various projects when works commence on site. Assistance in this phase of the project can include contract support during construction, technical review and the provision of engineers to assist with site management and supervision.

Commenting on the level of service provided by Royal HaskoningDHV, Ute Varrelmann at HZI said: “Royal HaskoningDHV were asked to support our team by providing a civil tender design and estimate to a tight programme. The experience of their civil and structural engineers combined with that of the cost consultancy team resulted in a very high level of accuracy in the estimate when tested with the market. Royal HaskoningDHV mobilise very quickly, have a great team ethic and provide a very high quality service. We can totally rely on them and will consistently work with them on our UK projects.”

Royal HaskoningDHV’s extensive expertise in UK civil contracting, knowledge of the EfW industry and experience of designing numerous EfW plants on behalf of clients across the globe meant that the team was a perfect fit to offer integrated project management services.

“Tendering is a big investment for HZI. The process can often take a long time to complete and their internal team is spread amongst many projects. We therefore provide support to smooth peaks in the workload on an ongoing basis,” commented Trevor Amis. “We have a good track record of sticking to timescales and to budget on each individual project. Our civil estimates have proved reliable in the past and this is a huge strength for us in being able to deliver on client expectations.”

One example of this can be seen in the Dunbar EfW scheme. Based on Royal HaskoningDHV’s outline designs, the team estimated the costs to within £10,000 of the average of the tendered costs from the civil works contractors. This equated to a divergence accuracy of 0.02% when market tested. This estimate was used in HZI’s initial submission to Viridor.

Another element of Royal HaskoningDHV’s work with HZI is to help achieve value for money in the civil works tendering. By working to achieve the most competitive prices from civil contractors, Royal HaskoningDHV can help realise the best return on investment for HZI.

Francois Charriere, Project Director at HZI concludes: “The Royal HaskoningDHV team working for our project is currently considered as being part of our company. This is reflected by the quality of work performed, and through the communication between individuals. Considered to the above I can state the Royal HaskoningDHV team is probably the best personnel we have, this in regard to the quality and speed of the performed services.”